A trailer has arrived for “Clayface,” the upcoming DC Studios feature directed by James Watkins and written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, positioning the film squarely as a Halloween-season release for 2026. ”Darkman” vibes in the trailer. Some Cronenberg as well.
This is not standard superhero fare. Instead, DC appears to be leaning fully into horror territory, with the project shaped as a darker, R-rated spin on its source material. That rating choice suggests a looser creative framework and a willingness to push into more extreme, body-horror-inflected storytelling.
The story centers on a struggling B-movie actor who turns to a mysterious substance in a desperate bid to stay relevant — a premise that inevitably invites comparisons to recent body-horror cinema exploring fame, identity, and physical transformation.
The idea of a villain origin story told as horror, with the vibe of films like “The Fly, “Darkman,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Eyes Without a Face,” and “The Substance” is far more interesting to me than any of the other PG-13 projects Gunn is currently working on. I’m cautiously optimistic. The concept looks genuinely interesting - I just hope Watkins doesn’t soften the horror elements.
Behind the scenes, “Clayface” has already undergone a significant creative shift. Mike Flanagan reportedly delivered an early draft before moving on to focus his attention on his Carrie series for Prime Video. Hossein Amini, best known for Drive, was subsequently brought in to reshape the script, leaving open questions about how writing credits will ultimately be shared.
Warner Bros. and DC Studios are reportedly targeting a modest $40M budget and an R-rating, a combination that suggests a more contained, genre-driven experiment within the larger DC slate. James Gunn surely wants a hit after the “Supergirl” debacle.
Watkins’ credits include the notoriously brutal Eden Lake, the gothic hit The Woman in Black, standout television work on Black Mirror (“Shut Up and Dance”), and the recent English-language remake of Speak No Evil.
“Clayface” is scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 23, 2026 from Warner Bros. and DC Studios.
Denzel playing a broken ex-cop with nothing to lose, under McQuarrie's direction? We all know Washington loves to attach himself to redemption stories. It's his bread and butter.